Overheard a guy at the lumberyard talking about his granddad's anvil

I was picking up some rebar last Tuesday and heard this younger fella telling his buddy about inheriting a 150 pound anvil from his granddad. Said he was gonna sell it for scrap because it had a chunk missing from the face. I had to step in and tell him not to do that. That kind of damage can be ground smooth or even welded up if you know what you're doing. My own anvil is a beat up old Fisher from the 1920s that I got for 50 bucks at a farm auction ten years ago. It's got a chip on the heel and a slight sway in the middle, but after a little cleanup it works just fine for most of my projects. Made me think about how many good tools get tossed because folks don't know they can be fixed. Has anyone here saved an anvil that looked rough from the start?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_tessa4d ago

That 150 lb anvil story reminds me, I used to be the type who'd look at a chipped anvil and think it was junk. Reading about how easily that damage gets fixed totally changed my mind on what's worth saving.

the_joel3d ago

Oh yeah @the_tessa, "chipped anvil" being junk is like calling a car totaled for a flat tire. People don't realize how MUCH of that stuff is just surface level ugliness that a grinder and 20 minutes can fix. Makes me wonder how many perfectly good things I've thrown away just because they looked a little beat up on the outside.